Jie Chen^1,2

1 Hangzhou Lin'an Tuanyuanren Food Co., Ltd., Hangzhou, 311322, Zhejiang, China
2 Zhejiang Agronomist College, Hangzhou, 310021, Zhejiang, China
Author    Correspondence author
Biological Evidence, 2026, Vol. 16, No. 5   
Received: 05 Sep., 2026    Accepted: 07 Oct., 2026    Published: 15 Oct., 2026

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Chinese hickory (Carya cathayensis) is an important perennial woody nut tree species in China. Under long-term intensive management, diseases affecting trunks and branches, leaves, roots, and the root collar have become important constraints on plantation health and stable production. This review summarizes current knowledge of the major diseases of Chinese hickory and advances in sustainable disease management. The principal disease problems include Botryosphaeriaceae-associated trunk canker and dry rot, anthracnose and leaf blight affecting aboveground tissues, as well as Phytophthora- and Fusarium-associated root rot, collar necrosis, and crown decline. Increasing evidence indicates greater pathogen diversity and a shift toward more complex disease syndromes. Long-term intensive management, soil acidification and nutrient imbalance, understory vegetation loss, rhizosphere microbial disturbance, and climatic stress may increase disease risk by weakening root function and tree vigor. Sustainable management should therefore integrate plantation sanitation, soil restoration and balanced fertilization, biological control and rhizosphere regulation, resistant rootstocks, early disease monitoring, and targeted fungicide application. Future research should strengthen disease-complex identification, long-term epidemiological monitoring, studies of disease-suppressive soils and beneficial microbiomes, and the transition from single-pathogen control toward integrated plantation health management.

Chinese hickory; Trunk canker; Root rot; Disease complex; Soil health; Rhizosphere microbiome; Sustainable disease management; Plantation health management